Like Flipping A Switch
by The Genius Mage
Summary: Set during Days. A second day off provides Roxas with the perfect opportunity to ease the tension between Axel and Xion. Together, they finally make it to the beach, and everything may just turn out fine...even if only for a day. Giftfic, friendship only.


~*_Like Flipping A Switch*~_

_And suddenly, everything was back to how it was._

_~***~_

Roxas didn't really want to get up.

He frowned, pulling his white covers over his head, pressing his face deeper into his pillow. It would be _idiotic_ to do anything other than sleep. Axel and Xion were still at odds with one another, rarely going to the clock tower anymore. That left him to do Heartless routing before dealing with the crackling tension between his two best friends. It wasn't _fair_.

He cracked an eye open after ten minutes of fruitlessly denying what he knew he had to do, then he hauled himself from his bed and slipped his dark cloak on, stomping out of his room, already in high bad temper. Roxas entered the Gray Area in a black fury; blonde hair still an untidy spiky mess on his head, blue eyes flicking everywhere, searching for a target for his anger.

It was empty.

Roxas hadn't expected _that_. He approached the massive glass window-wall of the white chamber, reading the note taped sloppily to its glossy frame. He recognized Demyx's untidy scrawl across the paper sheet.

_Superior is off with the others doing important stuff. We've got a day off. Go do something __not__ useful!_

After deciphering the hastily written text, a huge grin lit up Roxas's face, destroying the festering rage that had rooted itself into his system. His first thought was to go back to sleep—like Axel did on vacations—or head back to Twilight Town to play Grandstander.

But then he remembered…

_We were going to go to the beach! Xion, Axel and I. Next time we had a day off._

Excitement surged through him, pumping adrenaline in waves through his body. Roxas raced off to find Xion first, shoes tap-tap-tapping the ivory tiled floor of the oppressively white castle. He took a half dozen turns and two winding passageways before he found Xion's room.

For some odd reason, Xion didn't have a gateway with a special title beneath her name. Roxas didn't understand it, but he decided it must be because they just hadn't thought about it yet.

Or, really, there were a lot of things that Xion didn't have…like a chair in Where Nothing Gathers…

A shake of his head dislodged such troublesome thoughts. If Xion hadn't yet brought it up, she probably didn't care. He rapped sharply on her plain metal door with one fist, all but bouncing with energy. There was a brief pause, and then the door slid open.

Xion looked…ill. Her black hair was plastered to her face with sweat, her expression worn out. Roxas realized she wasn't wearing her Organization robe, revealing a dark gray shirt checkered with black and white on the sleeves and deep blue, loose leggings. Her eyes examined him with her usual reserved calm.

"Hi, Roxas." One massive yawn that forced her eyes closed later, she spoke again. "What's up?"

He gave her a worried look. "Are you all right?"

"Tired, just a little." Xion brushed her hair back and forced a smile.

Roxas glanced beyond her to the bare white interior of her room. See, not much different than his own, even if it _was_ somewhere else. Reassured, he suggested, "Why don't we get Axel and go to the beach? Like we said?"

Xion's expression became strangely still, unreadable, and then it settled into a guarded mask. "Okay, sure."

Pleased that she had agreed so easily, Roxas grinned. "Meet us at the Gray Area in ten minutes! I'll go get Axel."

She waved one hand. "Sure, sure."

Turning on his heel, Roxas pelted off for Axel's room. He was nothing but a dark blur against an ivory backdrop, deigning not to use Corridors in favor of plain muscle power. A—loud—knock was all that was warranted to bring the Flurry of Dancing Flames stumbling out of his room.

"What's up? Sheesh, we've got a day off, Roxas." The redhead mimicked Xion's action from earlier, yawning.

"You promised," Roxas accused, waiting for the realization to sink in.

Axel opened one green eye. "Oh."

"_Oh_ what?"

"The beach. Right. Well, is Xion going?"

"She _said_ she would."

"And she's been _such_ a bucket of sunshine lately, hasn't she?"

Roxas glowered, crossing his arms. "No fighting today, alright? C'mon, let's go to the Gray Area. Then Twilight Town's beach, right?"

"Either that or Destiny—I mean yeah, sure." Axel followed Roxas with considerably less energy than the Key of Destiny had, trailing behind him and grumbling about what he did for the kids.

Xion was already there when they arrived, fully clothed and cautiously eyeing Axel before flicking her gaze to Roxas. "Hey, Roxas, Axel."

"Yo, Xion." Axel stretched his arms over his head, and the joints popped and cracked noisily. "Let's get this show on the road, then. You two have munny, right?"

"More than I need, really." Roxas was determined to get his friends to play nice. They needed to quit this argument of theirs. Yes, he wasn't happy that Axel had knocked Xion out, but that was the past. They needed to let stuff go, right?

"Xion?" Axel inquired, raising one gloved hand and creating a Dark Corridor. The oval clawed into existence, waving its cold tendrils, hissing and spitting and rippling with blue-purple-black power.

"Of course. You?" She answered calmly.

He winked. "I can spare some."

Roxas plunged through the portal with a shout of joy, and Xion smiled despite herself. Axel bowed and extended a hand towards the entryway.

"Ladies first," he said innocently.

~***~

Sunshine flowed down in marvelously warm beams across his face and skin. Roxas stared around at the white sand, sparkling brightly, and the crashing blue sea waves that hurled itself against the shore, sighing in disappointment every time it slid back down. Palm trees tossed their leaves in the soft breeze, whilst forts, castles, and strongholds of white clouds drifted aimlessly through the pale sky.

"This is Twilight Town's beach, huh?" Roxas turned to his companions, pleased smile in place. "I can't believe we actually made it."

"Me neither," Xion muttered in agreement. "So, what are we going to do?"

Shrugging, the blonde replied, "We could always just wing it, right?"

Axel gave the environment a quick, cursory glance. "No Heartless in sight."

"That's good." Roxas folded his arms behind his head. "Y'know what?"

"What?" Xion looked at him curiously.

"Let's go swimming!" A grin split his young face again, and he turned his back on them to gaze at the ocean. Luckily, there was no one else around. Fortune was _finally_ smiling down on them. When he didn't get a response, Roxas turned back to his compatriots, more irritated than surprised. "No?"

Xion scuffed one boot against the sand. "_Can_ I swim? Can _you_ swim? I don't know…I've never tried."

Roxas scoffed, rolling his eyes. The words were out before he could even stop them. "Of _course_ I can swim! It's not like I'm going to go drown myself in the sea for fun."

She giggled, and Axel chuckled in unison.

"Gimme a break, Xion." He beamed at her, and unexpectedly, it was like someone had flipped a switch. The tension, the over formality between Xion and Axel, all of it disappeared.

Just like that.

"_You_ two can go swimming." Axel sat down with one leg drawn up to his chest, yawning theatrically. "I'm going to sit right here. I don't think I have the energy for that kind of stuff."

Xion rolled her eyes. "You just don't want to get wet. I bet you hate water."

"Not true," Axel drawled lazily. "I just don't _like_ water much, is all. Now, if you two started drowning, I'd go in to save you."

"You mean, only if our lives depended on it?" Roxas teased, flopping down beside the redhead. Xion remained standing, hands clasped behind her back.

"That about sums it up, Roxas." Axel smiled, his green eyes sparkling, speckled strangely thanks to the patchy shadow of the palm tree.

"Hmm, well, if you won't go swimming…How about a little fun? See that palm tree?" Xion pointed to the tallest of the trees on the far end of the beach, just above the tide line.

Two pair of heads turned to look.

"I'll go swimming with Roxas…but we can _all _go over there. I'll race you!" She declared.

Axel looked disgusted and even the blonde smirked. They said at once:

"Heh, nah." Roxas leaned back on his palms.

"Are you kidding?" Axel remarked coolly.

Not impressed in the slightest by their attitudes, Xion exclaimed, "Ready? Go!"

One heartbeat passed, then there was a spray of sand as Roxas and Axel pelted off at full speed for the palm tree. They were neck in neck, even with Axel's longer legs; the Key of Destiny was as quick as a bounding rabbit. Xion waited a moment before laughing and following them, catching up just as Roxas jumped and rattled the branches of the palm tree.

"I win!" He grinned triumphantly, turning to the Flurry of Dancing Flames with a smug expression.

Axel took in several deep breaths before collapsing under the tree. "Only 'cause I was tired. Now, you two go swim and I'll try not to faint from lack of oxygen."

"I had _no_ idea you were so _old_," Xion commented with a gasp, earning a snicker of amusement from the blonde.

In a flash, Axel jumped up and caught the raven-haired girl in a headlock. He dragged her, struggling and protesting, to the sea and bodily hurled her within its sapphire depths. Roxas doubled over with laughter as Xion emerged, spluttering and coughing, her face slack with shock.

"Look, you _can_ swim!" The eldest Nobody clapped both hands to his face in mock surprise. "Praise to Kingdom Hearts!"

Xion stared down at herself, stunned. "I can swim?" She fell back into the water and promptly started pedaling around on her back, smiling hugely.

Roxas took a step back, and though the sandy rustle should have alerted him, Axel was too busy formulating a sarcastically witty comment to take notice. With a whoop, the blonde tackled the redhead from behind, plunging them both into the surf. In a salty spray of glittering blue, the pair landed with an unceremonious splash in the ocean.

Xion splashed water onto Axel's face the moment he forced himself to the surface. "How's it feel?"

He returned the gesture, except twice as large, and the black-haired girl went under for a moment as the seawater washed over her. "I dunno, why don't you tell me?"

Roxas dove under the swelling tide, flipping onto his back. It was like watching the world from behind a glimmering golden veil, the sun a far away glow past a moving wall of liquid glass. The sight was breathtaking. His Organization robe flowed around him, a billowing cloud of stark darkness.

A sudden wave of dizziness crashed over him, lasting only a moment, but in that instant, he wasn't himself. He was that boy. Sora. Someone was talking to him, a girl…

"_How long do you think you can hold your breath?"_

Then it was gone, and the need for air took him back to the surface. The reply had been oddly ready on his tongue, though.

"_Longer than Ri—"_

"You look so strange with your hair flat, Roxas." Xion giggled again as the blonde Nobody ruffled his wet spikes.

"Not as bad as Axel," he countered.

Axel scowled, scrubbing furiously at his red spines and succeeding in fluffing some life back into them. "Can I get out now?"

Xion and Roxas both replied with an immediate, "Nope!"

"Ah, c'mon—"He began to protest, but the duo only laughed and dragged him back under the water so he could see the wide assortment of shells on the bottom. Roxas was reminded of his and Xion's respective comas, and the gifts that they had left to represent each day. The seashells…

They played in the surf for a few hours, alternating between random racing trips too. Axel even dug out an old memory from his "Somebody" days and constructed a sand castle whilst the other two watched with wide eyes as the dusky brown structure began to form on the sand.

Oddly, Axel had absently scratched a crescent moon onto the side of the towered creation when it was done, with a simple, stylized flame to accompany it.

"What's that mean?" Xion had asked, her tone interested.

Axel had done a double take before rubbing out the moon, and after a heartbeat, the fire too. "Nothing, I just got lost in a memory."

Roxas would have brought it up again, but he was hesitant when it came to ruining the warm glow he felt emanating from his friends. And _finally_, they were acting like friends again!

All was as it should be, and he was satisfied.

When the sun began to set, soaking the ocean with its dying radiance, the trio retired to the big palm tree they had first raced to. Axel whisked off to get some ice cream, and that left Roxas and Xion alone for a few minutes.

Roxas remembered the weird, dizzy sensations and the odd pictures that had been playing through his mind all day—one in particular, a red-haired girl weaving a shell necklace by a raft, had been the strongest—but again, he didn't want to do or say anything that might have affected Xion's positive mood, so he kept his mouth shut about it.

The sun gave everything a new layer of color. The sea wasn't just sapphire; it was now tinted with scarlet. The clouds weren't just white; they were now a peachy-gold. The sky wasn't just pale blue; it was now a kaleidoscope of various shades, all near the warm end of the spectrum.

"It's beautiful, almost one of the best we've seen." Xion quietly said, her eyes fixated on the sight.

Roxas nodded thoughtfully. "Ever wonder why the sun sets red?"

"'Cause light is made of a lot of colors, and red travels the farthest," Axel's voice reached them from behind before Xion could respond. He sat down between them, offering the Keybearers some Sea Salt ice cream.

Roxas accepted his with a nod, biting into the concoction with a smile.

"Like I asked, know-it-all." Xion teasingly scoffed.

"That's what I said," agreed the blonde amiably.

"Shut up and eat your ice cream." Axel playfully pushed the raven-haired girl, and she smiled brightly.

Roxas felt, for once, that everything had finally turned out right. As he joked with his companions, knowing all too well that he had another Heartless eliminating mission to perform tomorrow, and that being a "prisoner" back at the Castle would probably put Xion in a somewhat sour mood again; he let himself forget all of that.

After all—and maybe this was the strange memory-Sora that existed in his head talking—what were beaches made for, if it wasn't to bring friends closer together?

"_Sora, don't ever change."_

"Roxas, don't ever change," Xion said suddenly. It was disconcerting, to hear her voice along with the girl's in his mind, but the blonde shook it off.

"Huh?" He replied intelligently.

"Oh great, you're getting sentimental on me?" Axel moaned dramatically and fell back with a muted thump onto the sand.

Xion stuck her tongue out at him, and Roxas just grinned, resting his weight on one arm and finishing his ice cream with the other.

"Don't worry. I won't."

~***~

_**This is a gift for my friend UnVeRsEd. She's really deserved this for being just a fantastic person, and for all of the help she's given me on my Kingdom Hearts stories. Thank you, so much, and I hope this gift was to your liking!**_

_**To all other readers, I'd be really glad if you dropped a review for me!**_

_**Musical Inspiration: Destiny Islands. On repeat. Did wonders, didn't it?**_


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